Not a bad week. Knocked out two more circuit workouts on Mon and Thursday. Solid Swim on Tuesday and a Killer Swim with Ron on Friday. Ron is peaking for Kona. When he steps on the gas I have no chance! Wednesday I got up and Ran at ODarkThirty. It felt like I was moving, but 69 for 8 with MaxHR of 145 suggests I was still asleep. Saturdays run made up for it though. I put on the new Brooks Ghost4s and nailed my 12 mile loop (4 min faster than last week.) Sunday I rode back from Marissa's game at Flower Mound. I had no idea it was so hot. Ave Temp on the bike of 98! No wonder I was so dehydrated. Both water bottles were drained by mile 40. When I stopped at the 7-11 to reload, My chin straps we caked with salt! Yikes! Drained both bottles again in the last 15 miles! Sheesh!

Things seem to be coming together with my running. I survived circuits and had a great run on Wednesday. Saturday I was feeling pretty good out there so I extended my run to the full 12 mile loop the first time since April. Good swims and a nice ride on Sunday to boot.

August was the hottest month in the history of the Big D. Not really great for training. I attempted to start circuit training, but my left foot refused to cooperate. I did manage to do a bunch more swimming with Ron including a bunch of OWS training.

Monday was Labor Day. I took the opportunity to do a nice solo ride. The weather was cool; I had to wear arm warmers! Tuesday I got halfway through my workout in the indoor pull when Ron turned up and dragged me outside for the rest of the workout. Wednesday, I decided to try my six mile loop. I was shocked that I was able to do this run in 45 minutes AND keep my HR below 162. Amazing! Thursday I tried my circuits again, but with no burpees. No one showed at the pool on Friday, but I nailed the 200s in 3:07, 3:02, 2:59, 2:55. Saturday I hooked up with the RBM 805 ride. I tried to take it easy until the last 10 miles, where I hammered it harder than really was necessary given the race on Sunday. Sunday I did my third Prairieman sprint. I ended up leading the bike and finishing 3rd overall. Really nice week. Unexpected!

This race was very similar to this years McKinney Race proving once again that in Triathlon you gotta use your coconut!

Temps Sunday morning were in the high sixties. I got the park pretty early. When I set up the bike though I did not have the set of rubber bands/zip ties to set up the bike shoes the way I had done for my last two races. I figured, no problem I would just carry the bike out of transition. Bad idea.

It was pretty dark, and they did not allow us much time to warm up in the water. I did maybe 300 meters. I wish I had been able to do more than that, but Iron Jack pulled everyone out of the water for his famous pre-race talk.

VickyP was racing in my wave, and I knew that she would be strong in the swim. She lined up to my left, which is my primary breathing pattern so I could keep an eye on her. I got off to a good start and got to the first turn with the top group. On the next leg I got passed but I got on the toes of this guy through the second turn when they got away from me. I was third out of the water and who was just head of me - VickyP. Sheesh!

My bike was in the last rack - the one closest to the water. Belt, Helmet, Glasses, grab the bike. Outta there. Per the plan I carried the bike all the way to the other side of the transition zone and when I got the mount line what did I see? Only one bike shoe clipped in the pedal. Shit. I had beat VickyP through transition but off she went while I went back ALL THE WAY through transition to get my shoe. Good lord.

This dude held my bike while I went to find the missing shoe.

That must of cost me 45 seconds on my bike time. Three more competitors got by me by the time I got on the bike. I passed the first guy on the way out of the park. I passed the second guy half way to the first turnaround. I caught the third guy, Archie, before the first turnaround. Archie and I passed each other a few more times over the next 5 miles or so. Then I picked off VickyP. The two leaders were pretty far ahead - I could see the lights on the police motorcycle and that was about it.

This race features a Half Iron event and the sprint. The last turnaround for the Half Iron is a long ways before the second turnaround for the sprint. When I got to the HalfIron turnaround, I saw one bike heading back on the road, a second bike pulled over to the side of the road and the police bike was waiting for me. The leaders screwed up and I was in the lead. Good Grief. The McKinney race did not have a police bike leading the bike race, and I was not 100% sure that I was leading the bike until I got back to transition. Here, I knew EXACTLY what was going on. Hammer time. No one else passed me on the bike from that point on.

I got off the bike and through transition without major incident.

Coming out of transition. Water all over the place!

My run training has been horrible. I went out as hard as I could manage and kept digging deep. I knew those dudes would be hot on my tail. This run is an out and back run and just before halfway a guy passes me with 36 on his leg. He just blew by me. I was not sure what to think, in fact it took me almost the rest of the run before I realized that this guy was the leader of the of other wave, which started three minutes in back of our wave. I pushed as hard as could for the last half mile and was not too far in back of the leader. The next guy did not come in for a long time.

Glad that one is over!

That was good enough for third overall in 1:12:31 (3 and a half minutes faster than last year). The next master finisher was almost four minutes back in 13th overall. I was 7th in the swim in 8:44 (2nd in the top 5); 13th in the bike in 42:10 (if I subtract the 45 seconds to run through transition to get the lost shoe, I would have been 8th); and 8th in the run in 19:38.

I had two long days at medical facilities this week. Fran made me take her back to have surgery on her OTHER elbow on Friday. The last time we did this, she was in and out of there lickity-split and was able to meet the boys for the Friday Swim. In this case that did not happen AND Logan had an early soccer game AND I had to get Logan from school - which meant on Friday I was lucky to get in a four mile run. Sheesh. Then on Sunday, Logan was pushed down during her morning soccer game and she fell on her wrist. The trainer had me go get it xrayed, which was negative - thank heavens - but not after spending another three hours in the medical place. Double Sheesh. And also its worth noting that work was nuts on Wednesday, so I was unable to get out of the office for a workout. I saw Ron that afternoon but managed to get on the bike for 10 miles of intervals at Breckinridge. Triple Sheesh.

Meanwhile I am still trying to get the PF cleared up in my left foot so I have put circuits on hold until further notice. :-(

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